World Water and Sanitation, 25 Years Later

In the 25 years since the World Health Organization/Unicef Joint Monitoring Programme began to document the world’s access to drinking water and sanitation, a lot has changed. 91% of the global population now has piped water onto its premises or another form of adequate drinking water, up from 76% in 1990. Now 1 in 3 people are still without adequate sanitation facilities, down from half. Explore, country by country, access to water and sanitation and see what’s changed since 1990.

Year

Type

Category*

Adequate

Adequate

Piped water on premises

Alternative adequate water sources

Inadequate

Unprotected water

Surface water

Adequate

Inadequate

Shared facilities

Other unhygienic facilities

Open defecation

Country

Percentage-point change to adequate water from 1990-2015.

Greatest Increase

Cambodia

53

Mali

50

Malawi

48

Paraguay

45

Ethiopia

44

Greatest Decrease

Algeria

-7

Haiti

-4

Dominican Republic

-2

Zimbabwe

-2

Kazakhstan

-1

Percentage-point change to adequate sanitation from 1990-2015.

Greatest Increase

Vietnam

42

Nepal

42

Pakistan

40

Cambodia

39

Paraguay

37

Greatest Decrease

Nigeria

-9

Zimbabwe

-3

Papua New Guinea

-1

Belarus

-1

Russia

-1

Urban and Rural Divide

While change has been vast, it has also been unequal. Rural areas, especially those in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, are more likely to have poor water access and sanitation than urban areas. Below, see the disparity in progress between rural and urban areas within a country.

SanitationAdequate facilities: facilities likely to ensure hygienic separation of human excrete from human contact; includes flush/pour flush to piped sewer system, septic tank composting toilet, ventilated improved pit latrines or pit latrine with a slab.
Shared facilities: sanitation facilities of an otherwise acceptable type shared with other households.
Other unhygienic facilities: facilities don’t ensure hygienic separation of human excrete from human contact; includes pit latrines without a slab or platform, hanging latrines and bucket latrines.
Open defecation: when human feces are disposed of in fields, forests, bushes, open bodies of water, other open spaces or disposed of with solid waste.

Target: 50% or more of those with inadequate water or sanitation in 1990 have adequate conditions in 2015